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Sigfox names APAC president, plans networks throughout Asia

April 1, 201617:28Stuart Corner

France based IoT low-powered wide area network (LPWAN) developer, Sigfox, is ramping up its plans to roll out networks across Asia with the appointment of a president of Sigfox APAC, based in the company’s regional headquarters in Singapore.

The appointee, Roswell Wolff, will “lead the company’s Asia-Pacific expansion and the deployment of the Sigfox global network across the whole Asia Pacific region within the next three years.” The launch of Sigfox networks in Australia and New Zealand by local licensee, Thinxtra, is imminent. The company also said last November that launches in Japan, Singapore and India were imminent.

Wolff is described as “a seasoned international executive with more than 25 years of experience in the digital, communications and M2M, software and systems-integration markets,” who has “driven growth and profitability, as well as led strategy creation and implementation and development of several businesses in those spaces in Europe and Asia Pacific.”

Most recently he was president of Asia Pacific operations for Oberthur Technologies, a provider of embedded digital security, and before that senior vice president of global accounts with global IT services company Atos. He has previously worked for Convergys and Verizon.

Sigfox to integrate with Azure IoT Hub

Sigfox is to integrate the Sigfox Cloud with Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, enabling customers to use data gathered over Sigfox networks for real-time analytics under Azure. The Azure IoT Hub is Microsoft’s platform – running in its Azure cloud – for connecting and managing IoT devices.

Sigfox’s cloud-to-cloud integration with Azure IoT Hub will be available to both Sigfox and Microsoft customers and is claimed to “provide an easy and secure way to connect and control millions of devices … [and] collect, analyse and visualise large quantities of operational data produced by their connected devices and applications.”

Steve Guggenheimer, Microsoft corporate vice president of developer platform & evangelism and chief evangelist, said: “The rapid proliferation of connected devices can raise challenges in bringing together disparate data sources, handling the scale of the aggregate stream and ensuring a variety of platforms and protocols work together harmoniously. Our collaboration with Sigfox enables Microsoft Azure IoT customers to more easily integrate devices connected to the Sigfox network in their existing solutions.”

Sigfox and Microsoft say they are working together on startup opportunities and large-scale joint projects with customers around the world.